Swollen Members’ Madchild recently got an unpleasant surprise on the way to the United States to perform with the band.
He says he was heading through customs at Vancouver International Airport when he was put into the waiting room for three years before finally being called to the customs desk.
“When I was finally called up, the agent started questioning me about being a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club and when I replied, ‘No,’ he just continued to repeat the question over and over again,” Madchild says.
He says he then waited five more hours before being asked the same questions over and over again before being told eight-and-a-half hours later that he was officially banned from entering the United States.
Madchild says he feels his being barred from the States is unfair because he’s “being judged for the people I associated with and for some trouble I had back when I was a minor over 16 years ago.
“In the last year I’ve managed to defeat my drug addiction and hopefully use my journey to inspire the youth to avoid the pitfalls that I fell into. It’s extremely disheartening to me to know that after turning my life around, it feels like a second chance is evading me.
“Unfortunately when entering the United States, I’m not judged on the person I am today, but rather on my appearance and whoever the customs officials perceive me to be, which is discrimination.”
This means the MC is unable to enter the U.S. to record or tour until things have been cleared up with U.S. customs or the ban is lifted. Swollen Members had planned to release their Dagger Mouth album on March 15.
Madchild isn’t the first Canadian act to be banned from the States, though. In 2006, You Say Party were caught without proper visas while touring the U.S., and after bassist Stephen O’Shea was questioned for five hours, he was banned from entering the U.S. in 2011. But last year, the band’s lawyers finangled something to allow them to tour the U.S. last March.
Swollen Members are set to play a show on Jan. 29 at Denver’s Casselman’s Bar And Venue. It’s not known if it’ll go ahead without Madchild.
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